Multi-Dimensional Man
Herbert Marcuse was the philosopher of the future in an age without one.
ByLiterature
Immerse yourself in the captivating world of literature with our collection of articles, offering literary analysis, book recommendations, author spotlights, and thought-provoking discussions that celebrate the written word.
From Roald Dahl to Ian Fleming, censorship is good for the book trade
Releasing bowdlerised books into a predictable storm of ridicule and then making the “classic texts” available is clever business.
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The best fiction books for 2023
The year’s publishing highlights, including new novels by Salman Rushdie, Diana Evans and Eleanor Catton.
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I’m a writer who thrives on stories – so why can’t I read novels any more?
I fear my reluctance to read fiction reveals how focused on myself I have become, amid the inwardness of depression.
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Changes to Roald Dahl reveal our hypocritical attitudes towards children and media
Kids are expected to shrug off a daily barrage of sexual and violent imagery – but are seen as too…
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Roald Dahl’s books are nasty by nature – editing a word or two won’t make them nice
Sanitising the writer’s legacy may help him remain profitable – but his books can’t be easily cleaned up.
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The infinite art of John Donne
His life was blighted by poverty, but his poetry made exhilarating connections between sex, faith and death.
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Why Salman Rushdie’s imagination cannot be stopped
In his first interview since the attack on his life, the novelist refuses to be defined as target or victim.
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Dickens and his demons
How the novelist hid his cruel side – infidelity, bullying callousness, malice – in plain sight in his fiction.
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How a bestselling novel reveals French sympathy for Putin
The Wizard of the Kremlin has provoked fierce debate in France, where support for Russia lingers on both the right…
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The upside-down world of Lewis Carroll
9 December 1939: The author was a man who spoke to the child in all of us.
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What critics don’t get about Sally Rooney
To label her an over-hyped ingenue is to misunderstand her greatest conceit.
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The poetic history of David Graeber
The posthumous publication of Pirate Enlightenment shows how the anarchist, like any true intellectual, never grew out of his childhood…
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In search of a language of loss
Is there a correct way to mourn? When my mother died, I scoured the literature of grief for answers
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Bret Easton Ellis: “Wokeness is running out of room”
The Shards is the famously morbid author’s latest “trickster book”. He prefers cabinet shopping to culture wars now.
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The prophet of post-fascism
The late Marxist intellectual Gáspár Miklós Tamás captured Europe’s disorientation after the Cold War.
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What Norman Mailer can teach us
It is right to condemn the writer’s violent chauvinism – but a literature that has lost the power to challenge is…
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Pico Iyer Q&A: “I feel radiant when staying in a monastery”
The travel writer on Paddington Bear, the joy of watching sport, and finding a cure for jet-lag.
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From Tom Crewe to Caro Giles: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring A Writer’s Diary by Toby Litt and a study of conducting by Alice Farnham.
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The secret lives of Katherine Mansfield
A century after the writer’s death, a new biography shows how she withstood colonial prejudice and terminal illness to produce…
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